Join us in the library or online for a conversation with Richard Bell, author of Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home, the true story of five boys who were kidnapped in the North and smuggled into slavery in the Deep South—and their daring attempt to escape and bring their captors to justice.

Professor Bell's presentation will include information on the Reverse Underground Railroad. Flowing in the opposite direction of the Underground Railroad, the Reverse Underground Railroad was a multiheaded criminal enterprise. Gangs, such as Sussex County’s Cannon-Johnson Gang, kidnapped free African Americans, often children, in the North and sold them into a lifetime of enslavement in the Deep South. In fact, two houses at the western edge of Sussex County were the control and command centers of the Reverse Underground Railroad’s most vicious group of conductors and station agents.

Richard Bell teaches Early American history at the University of Maryland, where he is an an Andrew Carnegie Fellow. He has received several teaching prizes and major research fellowships including the National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award. His first book, We Shall Be No More: Suicide and Self-Government in the Newly United States, was published in 2012. Bell a frequent lecturer on C-Span and at the Smithsonian Institution.

This event is co-sponsored by the Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice.

We invite you to support the author by purchasing a copy of their book from Browseabout Books by clicking HERE. Call-in orders are accepted at (302) 226-2665 or you can stop by the store to purchase a copy. For store hours, please visit their website. Copies of the book will be for sale at the event and there will be a book signing afterwards.

NOTE: this session is available to attend in-person or through Zoom. You MUST REGISTER and indicate which you prefer.

If you have need assistance with registration or getting your Zoom invitation, please email us.

Basic written instructions for using Zoom may be found here and a brief video tutorial may be found here. Closed captioning is available for all our sessions. Information on enabling closed captioning in Zoom may be found here.